This is a thread I've wanted to make for a while, it has nothing to do with any threads recently created, I was inspired by this story: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indi ... SKCN1OW07Q
For those who didn't hear when this was still in the news a couple months ago, a Left Wing Indian state government brought to the Indian Supreme Court an anti-discrimination lawsuit against a Hindu temple which historically doesn't allow women to worship at it for religious reasons. The Indian Supreme Court agreed, and within a few weeks, Indian police forced the temple to allow women to enter, after which there was a purification ceremony for the temple. I was disturbed by the way which BBC World Service radio reported on the issue, as they made it sound like a triumph for women's rights, but it seemed to me to be an intrusion for the purpose of violating tradition for its own sake. As Indian politicians were quick to point out, women had protested against the Supreme Court ruling, saying that truly devout women would respect the god's wish for women to not visit his temple. It also reminded me of something in my own church.
In 2003, the European Parliament passed a resolution requesting that Greece force the Monastic Republic of Mount Athos, a territory governed by Monastic communes, be forced to admit women into its borders based on the principle of gender equality. Mount Athos has had a ban on women entering the monasteries since the middle ages, with some religious reasons, but mostly because the monks there fear two things 1) that if women are allowed in, novice monks will be distracted, and 2) if women are allowed, then whole families will be allowed to visit the area and their monastery would become a tourist trap. Regardless of what one thinks of these reasons, I would say that the monks have their right to separate themselves from the outside world, as they've done for nearly a thousand years.
Moreover, how far could these principles of anti-discrimination go? Could the Catholic Church be forced to allow women to become priests, in violation of its ancient teachings? These organizations are not businesses or public entities, but are private groups with closed memberships, surely there is a legal principle that would allow them to remain as such.
